Observer News: Proposals for zoning overlay presented at Open House
Proposals for zoning overlay presented at Open House
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Penny_Fletcher on 05/04/2012 10:53:00
By PENNY FLETCHER
RUSKIN — County planners spoke to a packed house for the first time since
meetings concerning a proposed zoning overlay along U.S. 41 from Big Bend Road
to the Little Manatee River Bridge started 10 months ago.
Instead of the usual 15 to 20 people, at least 80 packed into the meeting room
at the South Shore Regional Library March 27 to see the many charts and drawings
compiled after getting public input at monthly meetings for the last 10 months.
Large posters showed the preferred methods of signs, landscaping, parking lot
arrangement, and (for new or renovating businesses) building design.
It was made clear that the building design requirements only apply to new
construction of retail commercial or office space and not to residential or
manufacturing or industrial plants.
Planners said manufacturing and industrial plants were deliberately left out so
future industry and jobs would not be discouraged in the areas already zoned for
heavy commercial like the area surrounding the intersection of Big Bend Road and
U.S. 41 all the way west to Tampa Bay.
There are some specific rules that could apply to existing businesses (retail
and offices) renovating more than certain percentages of their space.
“There will be a design exception process in place to deal on a case-by-case
basic,” pointed out planner Jose Fernandez, who has been in charge at most of
the monthly meetings. “We realize there are parts of Ruskin that are already
built and thriving and we don’t want to put a stop to that.”
But how to make certain beautification requirements of the overlay work in areas
already built is a major concern to some.
Debbie and Kevin McGrary want to build a retro-style bicycle store with all the
bells and whistles including spinning classes and a nutritional bar in the open
area of Thriftway Plaza, which is the area bordered by the Ruskin Post Office,
Marwan auto and two strip malls.
A large section of this plaza has been bare since a fire destroyed the Thriftway
grocery store there about 15 years ago. Recently, this has been one of the main
areas of concentration of the Ruskin Town Center group which is working on
future plans for Ruskin’s downtown beautification and development between
College and 19th avenues.
“If the businesses that are in that plaza aren’t going to have to abide by
the overlay standards,” Debbie McGrary said, “we won’t want to put our
money in it.”
They said they would have to take their business to another town.
But the shop they propose is just the kind of thing the RTC is looking for to
anchor that dark, bare area. Several improvements have been made there already,
including a large mural on the south side of the last building in the back of
the plaza that was done as a community art project several years ago.
“We have to make sure the rest of the center is made to fix up before we go
any further,” Debbie McGrary continued.
The McGrarys have lived full time in MiraBay for only four months but have been
traveling back and forth between their home in Maryland and Ruskin for many
months planning their venture.
Sandy Council, who has been working hard on the work group that gathered public
input from both Ruskin and Apollo Beach residents over the last months, said
that perhaps some administrative process could be put in place to deal with the
case by case basis that long-time businesses in Ruskin present.
“The lot sizes and buildings don’t allow for change to the location of
parking lots and things like that like they do with new development,” Council
said.
Fernandez and fellow-planner John Healey shared the comment sheets that were
written during the meeting with me several days later, after they had been read
by county planners.
They included such things as the following quotes:
We need to seek grant funding
We need to address the noise and nuisance issues with more buffer zones and
landscaping
We need more mixed-use right